This invention relates to the technical field of image processing. More particularly, it relates to an image correcting method and apparatus that can correct recorded images in such a way as to reduce the variation in consecutive scenes or similar scenes.
In the technology of preparing photographic prints by printing on photographic paper the images recorded on a photographic film by shooting, it has heretofore been proposed that either for all of the images that are recorded on the photographic film or for those images that are chosen on the basis of a camera's exposure and focusing precision, the amount of exposure common to the respective images should be determined on the basis of the average of the photometric values for those images or that the thus determined common amount of exposure should be further corrected to determine the amount of exposure for each of the images.
In certain cases such as where exposure by the same amount of light is dictated, the above-described method which uses the average of photometric values tends to cause a density failure or a color failure. With a view to preventing this problem, JP 10-20417 A proposes a photographic printer in which, given negative images that are to be exposed with the same amount of light, specific negative images for which appropriate individual amounts of exposure can presumably be calculated are chosen from the negative images, individual amounts of exposure are calculated for the chosen specific negative images, and the negative images that are to be exposed with the same amount of light are exposed on photographic paper using the average of the calculated individual amounts of exposure.
More specifically, the photographic printer of JP 10-20417 A is one of the direct-exposure type which performs exposure by projecting an image recorded on a photographic film onto a light-sensitive material (photographic paper) and in that printer, images that should be exposed with the same amount of light are determined on the basis of an FTPM signal, a series scene signal, shooting information and the like that are recorded in a magnetic recording layer on an APS film. Then, from among the negative images that, as has been determined, require exposure with the same amount of light, specific negative images are chosen by a selection method based either on the precision with which the principal area is extracted or on the amount of exposure correction, and the average of the individual amounts of light that are used to expose the specific negative images is calculated as a common amount of exposure. JP 10-20417 A also describes that the amount of exposure may optionally be adjusted using the history (shooting data) of each photographer.